FORMER Taoiseach Bertie Ahern – who once famously claimed to have won thousands of pounds on horse racing – has now scooped €10,000 in a local lotto draw.

Mr Ahern, who won the prize after reportedly buying a €2 ticket, was the lucky winner of a recent rollover jackpot in a draw for a soccer club on Dublin's northside.

The draw was made in the Beaumont House pub on the northside – a premise closely associated with the three-time Taoiseach.

It is understood Mr Ahern won the rollover jackpot in a draw for a soccer club in Whitehall.

However, he was not believed to be in the Beaumont House when his name was picked out over the weekend.

The pub is one of Mr Ahern's favourite haunts and was where he received his controversial £16,500 "dig out" from friends in 1994. One of his friends to give him money was Dermot Carew, owner of the Beaumont House.

Staff at the pub refused to comment last night but local sources said that Mr Ahern always bought tickets for local draws and was surprised to hear he had won thousands of euro.

"I don't think he was there at all at the time the draw was made," a source close to Mr Ahern said.

"Sure, he'd always be buying tickets to draws and stuff like that. I think it was a rollover for a soccer club around Whitehall."

During hearings at the Mahon Tribunal in 2008, Mr Ahern claimed that controversial lodgements he made to his accounts were in sterling – and he claimed he won some of the money betting on horses.